Birds of a Feather
by idiot9
Summary: With the encouragement of her 'family', Parker decides to visit an old friend. *Tag to season 5 episode 14 The Toy Job


At the end of Nate's story, everyone fell silent for a while until the mastermind cleared his throat and asked, "So, who's next?"

Hardison looked at Eliot and Eliot looked at Sophie, but it was Parker that spoke first.

She looked down at the table and took a deep breath, reminding herself that she trusted these people after all these years and they had yet to betray her; they were _family_. As strange as that concept was to her, it felt right to call them her family. They had her back through tough situations, and were always willing to go with whatever plans she had (okay, _almost_ always), but most importantly, they've never let her feel unwelcomed in anyway. For the first time in her life, she felt like she belonged with them.

"The Christmas I was seven, I was stuck at this foster home with six other kids. I was the youngest there, and well, when you're one of the younger ones you tended to get pushed around a lot. But there was a girl, Ellie, who was fifteen and she protected me. When the other kids pushed me, she'd push them back, and she even shared her hiding place with me when the adults started fighting," she paused for a moment before continuing. "She was my first friend. When I was shipped to another foster home a few days after New Years, she gave me her bunny to keep me company."

The same bunny that used to occupy her beds at her safe houses; the same bunny that suddenly appeared in Hardison's room one day and now lived on the table on _her_ side of the bed.

"And?" Eliot asked.

"And what?" Parker cocked her head to the side.

"Did you guys keep in contact?"

The thief shook her head. "It was too hard."

"You should try contacting her now, see how she's doing," Sophie suggested.

Parker shrugged in lieu of giving an answer. "So, who's next?" She echoed Nate's earlier words, effectively ending her story.

* * *

A few days later, Hardison handed Parker a slip of paper when they were seated in front of the screen.

"What's this?" She unfolded the paper and found an address on it.

"I did a little bit of digging around, and found Ellie's address for you. Turns out she actually lives in Portland now," Hardison replied almost nervously, then added, "I hope that's okay."

Parker didn't speak; she stared at the piece of paper until Hardison started fidgeting.

"You're not mad at me, are you, Parker?"

"What if she doesn't remember me?" She asks instead.

"Bring Bunny with you; she'll definitely know who you are."

"What if she doesn't like me?"

"Babe, everyone likes you," Hardison assured her.

"What do I tell her when she asks me what I do?"

"Tell her what you told Peggy."

"But that's different. Peggy knew Alice first – "

"You're Alice," Hardison interrupted, the statement being repeated so many times it was beginning to sound like a mantra.

Parker ignored him as she waved a hand in the air and carried on. "Then we sorta saved everyone's lives at the Venezuelan tango thingy, so she kinda thinks I'm a spy."

"A _what_?"

"A spy," the 'duh?' was clear in her voice. "So I told her that I couldn't tell her anything else about my job."

Hardison shook his head in disbelief.

"What do I tell her, Hardison?"Parker asked again, poking him in the shoulder.

"Tell her that you help people," he suggested.

She was silent for a while as her gaze fell onto the piece of paper once more. "Okay," she finally said, looking up.

"Okay what?"

"Okay, I'll go see Ellie."

"Do you want me to go with you?" He asked as he brushed back the bit of her hair that had escaped her ponytail.

She pursed her lips, thinking. "No, I think I can do it myself."

"Alright. You tell me if you need anything, okay, mama?"

"Kay," she mumbled and swung her arms around Hardison's shoulders. The two of them stayed that way until Eliot announced that it was time for dinner.

* * *

True to her words, Parker showed up at the address on the piece of paper on Saturday afternoon that week with Bunny clutched in her hands. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she pressed the door bell and resisted the urge to turn and run away.

The woman that answered the door was exactly like how she remembered Ellie – tall and willowy with long brown curls that framed her heart shaped face. "Hi," she smiled at Parker.

"Hi," Parker mirrored Ellie's smile somewhat shyly. "Um, you may not remember me, but I'm Parker from the – "

She was cut off when Ellie exclaimed, "Parker!" and pulled her into a hug.

"Of course I remembered you!"

A stunned Parker was then ushered into the house, and before she knew it, she was sitting in Ellie's living room with a cup of coffee in her hands.

"So," Ellie started when she sat down in the opposite couch. "How have you been?"

"Great," Parker replied.

There was a beat of silence between the two women until Parker realized that Ellie was waiting for her to elaborate.

"Um…" Parker racked her brain for something normal people would say, blurting out the first thing she came up with. "We've just moved to Portland a few months ago?" Uncertainty made Parker's tone rise at the end, phrasing her statement into a question.

"Who's 'we'?"

"My boyfriend and our friends. But we're more like a family though," the thief answered, thinking that it felt kind of… _different_ calling Hardison her 'boyfriend'.

"That's great," Ellie said, beaming. "I'm glad you've found such great friends."

"Yeah," the corners of Parker's mouth turned up too. "Me too."

They talked about all sorts of things that afternoon. Parker found out that Ellie was now a social worker, and that she was married to a doctor and they had two kids (they were off to the swimming pool for some father/ daughter/ son bonding time). She also found out that Ellie felt especially protective towards her because she looked a lot like her little sister who had died in the same car accident as her parents were in.

"That bunny I gave you," Ellie had said, nodding towards the stuffed toy in Parker's lap. "Was Steph's favorite stuffed animal. She kept it in her bed every single day."

Later that afternoon, when Parker stepped out of Ellie's house with the promise to keep in touch, she turned to find Nate, Sophie, Eliot and Hardison standing in front of Nate's car.

"We thought you might want a ride home," Nate explained.

Parker smiled.

Their little makeshift family might be crazy in some people's eyes, but hey, she was twenty pounds of crazy in a five pound bag, so that's fine. She wouldn't trade them for _anything_ in the world.

**END**

* * *

**A/N**

Idiot 9: I have to apologise for the lack of new stories recently due to a) TNT's cancelling of the show. WTH?! and b) the annoying little problem a lot of writers (both professional and unprofessional) experience sometimes - a.k.a writer's block. I hate it I hate it! This story alone took me three days to finish! Anyways, subject change. Please read and review! :P


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